The Effect of Scents on Our Purchasing Behaviors: Scent Marketing

Competition is quite high. Brands are in a fierce struggle with each other. We live in the age of purchasing. Such things are very likely to happen. But how do the winners of this challenge sit at the top? The answer is quite simple; by differentiating and activating emotional impulses.

Scent Marketing, also known as “Scent Marketing” . It is one of the most secret weapons of marketing in the past 10 years. I guess it still is. Scent Marketing; It deals with the keenest, most memorable, and most indispensable of our five senses, smell. You may refuse to touch something, you may not want to taste it, you may not hear it due to various factors, or your perception may become numb due to overstimulation and you may not see what is in front of your eyes. However, for a creature that breathes an average of 20,000 times a day, it is not possible to skip the smell and not be exposed to this stimulant.

Also, smell is the most acute of the five senses. When you enter through any door, the formation of your impressions begins with the smell. The impression that starts with the scent, on the other hand, affects the elements that will shape the whole impression.

In this context, it is no accident that brands use certain fragrances in their stores and sometimes even in their products.

The only thing we have not stopped doing for a second since the moment we were born is breathing. Smell is a big part of breathing. Odor perception is formed according to experiences and experiences. We can say that this situation puts brands and Scent Marketing a little bit more difficult. The fact that our experiences are different also makes our interpretation of smells different. That’s why brands need to know their target audience well. Who is the target audience, what their habits are, what they like, who they want to be… After answering these and other questions, another important phase of fragrance selection is started. Is the fragrance to be created/used suitable for the brand/product?

People who work on Scent Marketing, which has an effective but very slippery ground, say that there are a few rules to be considered in this area. These; The selected fragrance should convey your marketing purpose to the consumer correctly, the fragrance should be brand-specific and make a difference with the smell of the product or the store.

So, which sector uses which scents more? This situation is quite variable. Each brand periodically changes its fragrances for the message it wants to convey. But there are certain odors that are stereotyped in some areas. For example; baby clothing stores generally use powder and sugar scents. Luxury lingerie brands use coconut, honeysuckle and lilac. It has been found that the scent of melon is generally used in large hotel chains. The underlying reason for this is that it evokes friendship and trust, as well as having a calming effect on people.